


Beifong is Beigone

by QuenchiestCactusJuice99



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-09-26 07:42:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17137754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuenchiestCactusJuice99/pseuds/QuenchiestCactusJuice99
Summary: Toph Beifong does not exist here. It is freeing.Toph Beifong does not exist here. It is damning.Kirishima Toph is alone.





	1. Pop-Rocks and Snap-Stomps and Badgermoles

Toph Beifong doesn’t exist here. It is freeing.

 

It’s amazing. Here, she’s Kirishima Toph, and her mom is a damn angel. Toph Beifong’s parents never understood her, never even tried, they forced her to be a delicate little porcelain doll with perfect manners. Kirishima Toph’s mom is a rough and tumble, you snooze, you lose, work-for-it-and-fucking-win woman who bites her thumb at the world at large. She is Toph’s kind of woman. She’s loud, laughter-in-a-bottle, pop-rock feelings, an adventure. She doesn’t care how Toph presents herself, if she’s blind, she doesn’t care if Toph roughhouses in the dirt and mud with her twin. She cares if Toph wins against said twin.

 

If she is loud, laughter-in-a-bottle, pop-rock feelings, Toph’s brother is the overflowing from the rim of the cup, a full stomach, stepping onto dirt after a day of wearing shoes. He is solid, rocks plopped into the cup to spill the water from its sides, he is stone and content and relief and snap-stomp feelings.

 

Pop-rocks and snap-stomps and badgermoles, this is her life and her love, and it is ten thousand times more her than she has ever been allowed to be, even in Earth Rumble, even with Aang and Katara and Sokka, this is better.

 

But she is still alone. Her mother is amazing, her brother is a grinning mess ninety percent of the time, but they aren’t… they aren’t her team.

 

They are this - loud and solid, pop-rock and snap-stomp, rough and tumble, strong and dependable.

 

They are not this - meat jokes and stupid puns at midnight, campfire smoke smells and mellow sparks and tea time, comfort fights and water splashes and mud pies, sand castles and wind whipping hair from her face, monster yawns and bad breath and soft fur, chitter-chatter and flip-flapping and stolen fruit.

 

Toph Beifong does not exist here. It is damning.

 

Kirishima Toph is alone.

 

XxXxXxXxX

 

They sit in the living room, on the couch with a movie playing across from them. Eijirou is cheerily chatting over it without a care, shifting clothes saying he’s gesturing between strokes painting her toes, filling the air with nonsense and small talk. Toph is leaning back against the arm of the couch, pillows piled up behind her, and the polish is cool against her nails, and there’s noises of explosions and dumb dialogue in the background.

 

Having a sibling is… new. Eijirou is casual, ‘manly’, he jumps into whatever fights she starts with enthusiasm and no worry or pity for her. Her blindness might as well not exist with him. It’s nice, but also reminds her of when everyone around her acted like that. Now it’s just Eijirou and her mom.

 

(The four years she had before her ‘Quirk’ manifested were an absolute, terrifying hell she’d rather not ever think about ever again. The thought that her earthbending was gone, just… not there anymore, was… well.)

 

Eijirou’s Quirk was ‘Hardening’, allowing him to virtually become made of rock. Toph couldn’t bend him - she’d been a bit scared to try, but had in the end tried to make him bend his finger and failed - but she could see him like that. Not a fuzzy outline or anything, she could see him, in amazing detail. It was one of the best days of her life, ranked just behind regaining her earthbending.

 

Eijirou, being the only person she’s ever seen in detail instead of just weight, is someone she would love to say she could never get tired of. That would be a lie. Toph loves him, she really does, with all his exuberance and overall friendliness, but it rubs her raw, sometimes.

 

Toph, at school, doesn’t have friends. She is blind, and seen as a liability. No one talks to her outside of necessity, and when they do, they are either condescending, simpering fools, or inconsiderate jackasses. So.

 

Kirishima Toph is alone, and in more ways than one.

 

(There are no badgermoles here.)

 

Kirishima Toph passes her days in the nurse’s office with bloody knuckles and noses or out in the hall during classes, picking fights on and off school property.

 

(It is no replacement for Earth Rumble.)

 

Kirishima Toph has a solid reputation as a violent problem child and unapproachable troublemaker. No one wants to associate with the girl who punched out an upperclassman. The reason varies on who you ask or which rumors you hear, but the fact remains. No one wants to associate with the brawler girl who always has dirt layered on her somewhere, no one wants to associate with the girl who’s always ready to throw down over anything.

 

Kirishima Toph tells herself this is okay. That this is what she wants.

 

Kirishima Toph is alone in more ways than one, and she tells herself that it doesn’t hurt.

 

(She tells herself it doesn’t ache worse than leaving her parents, tells herself it doesn’t sting worse than betrayal by the same parents, tells herself it’s no worse than the cramped interior of a metal cage.)

 

Kirishima Toph tells herself a lot of things. But you have to understand - she is stubborn, and hardheaded, and difficult and unmovable and very, very good at denial. So, Kirishima Toph tells herself a lot of things, but you see- you see, not all of them are true.


	2. New Friend (and a cat)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toph is quite fond of her Quirk. She isn’t much amused by losing it, however short.

Toph wanders a lot. Alleys, unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to look at it, are always inviting trouble. Nothing good has ever happened to anyone in an alley, Toph is sure. Which is unfortunate, because she likes to wander and busy streets are no fun. This is also fortunate, because Toph picks fights with anything she doesn’t like. She misses Earth Rumble, a deep, desperate ache, and alleys are always full of trash she can take out her pent up anger and frustration and loss on.

 

Today is no different, except she supposes it’s technically no longer day. She has never been quite as concerned over day and night as everyone else seems to be. What difference does it make, to someone who can’t see it? But she can feel it. It’s in the air, in the way people move. People act differently when the sun is down.

 

Only when all is said and done, her scuffling through the alley after a fight,  someone else appears. Toph was disappointed to realize that she would have to rebuild her range of sensing, and was making due while she worked on it, but even though she knew these things took time it was still frustrating that the person was able to sneak up on her.

 

“Who’s there?” She says, and scowls at the silence, skirting the groaning man who’d tried to mug her. But then suddenly, _she can’t see._

 

It’s the years before her Quirk again, only all the more terrifying because _she’d just had it what the actual hell_ \- she stumbles, eyes wide even though it doesn’t help the sudden nothingness, and trips over her feet, catches herself against the alley wall and _screams_ , full of fear and rage.

 

Her back pressed against the wall, a breeze brushes her cheek and she lashes out, hitting nothing and hissing, disgruntled. “What did you do?!” She yells, and when a hand touches her shoulder she smacks it and punches whoever it is - a man, definitely - in the solar plexus purely by luck. “Get off!” She hollers, and tries to hit him again, only glancing his side as he moves.

 

“Calm down,” A deep, slightly irritated voice says, and she hisses at him again.

 

“I can’t fucking see, I’m not gonna calm down until you _give it back_ -“

 

The sudden return of her earthbending catches her off guard and her mouth snaps shut, but she still scowls suspiciously in the direction of the man’s new spot, none too pleased with his trick.

 

“What was that?” She snarls, and the man shifts.

 

“My Quirk.”

 

“Okay, useless line of questions, I already knew that, how about this one - _what the fuck was that for?_ ”

 

“Safety precaution.”

 

Toph sneers, bad mood worsening. “Who are you, anyway?”

 

“Eraserhead.”

 

Toph blinks, caught off guard, and smashes her palms into her eyes, groaning, “That’s the dumbest name I’ve ever heard. It takes the cake, I swear, not even Sparky Sparky Boom Man was that bad.”

 

There was silence again.

 

“Well, I’m Toph, and I don’t like you at all,” She tells him sourly, and turns to leave the alley, belief in the bad luck people in alleys seem to invite cemented.

 

“Feeling’s mutual, kid,” The man mutters. Toph flips him off over her shoulder.

 

XxXxXxXxXOoOoOoOoO

 

The encounter leaves her muttering cusses under her breath for a week, wandering off more aggressively than usual, ditching Eijirou after school and sullenly deflecting inquiries from her mom and sibling, because no one else would care or care enough to approach Kiichirou’s own Chaotic Neutral Disaster.

 

(That someone could easily _take away_ what she had just gotten back sits less than lightly in her chest, tightens her throat and chews at her mind.)

 

Toph can feel Eijirou stare after her, his weight shifting on the dirt path, before reluctantly turning away and towards their house, and lets her face fall into a familiar scowl.

 

She’s still sore about ‘Eraserhead’.

 

So she isn’t in a particularly friendly mood when she thumps down next to someone or other presumably on the cliff she uses for distance sensing for the view.

 

“What do you want?” The boy asks, voice both scratchy like he’s been talking for a while, or maybe yelling, and tired and annoyed.

 

“To sit in silence,” She snaps back, “Shut up or go away. I’m concentrating.”

 

The boy mutters something at her under his breath but otherwise complies, and as far as Toph can tell, stares off into the distance for an hour or so. Then he starts talking again.

 

“Who are you?”

 

Toph twitches, and ignores him.

 

“Tell me your name.”

 

Pointedly, Toph crosses her legs and doesn’t say anything. The boy sounds especially dour when he says, “So you _do_ know who I am.”

 

Toph... is confused. Confused enough that she forgets she’s supposed to be angry right now. “What are you talking about?”

 

There’s silence. “Me,” The boy finally responds. “I’m a Shinsou. Don’t play dumb. Everyone at Akatsume knows my Quirk.”

 

 _I’m a Shinsou_. In the unmistakable tone of someone used to their family’s name preceding them.

 

Toph remembers using that tone. “I go to Kiichirou,” She tells him, “And I still don’t know who you are, even if you are a Shinsou. I’ve never heard of them or you.”

 

There’s another silence and Toph is really starting to dislike the many pauses here. 

 

“Shinsou Hitoshi.”

 

“Kirishima Toph.” Then an idea strikes her and she smirks at the boy, playfully punching his shoulder. “You know, ‘cause it sounds like tough.”

 

The boy grunts at the impact, and there’s some shifting but he doesn’t run away. After a second, he half-snorts. “Sure,” He says, and then, sarcastically, “You punch like a girl, Kirishima.”

 

Toph sniffs. “I _am_ a girl, why thank you for noticing. And I’ll have you know I _do_ punch like a girl. A very strong girl. Because that’s what I am. A tough, strong girl.”

 

Hitoshi laughs quietly. Toph punches him again.

 

XxXxXxXxXOoOoOoOoO

 

Hitoshi, Toph learns, is his own school’s problem child. His family has a long history of crime and prison time, all the way back to his great-great-great-grandfather, so no one really trusted him at all in the first place, and his Quirk only made it worse.

 

Toph would love to say she didn’t care. But it’s too similar to the Dai Li. Toph trusts Hitoshi, brainwash Quirk and all, but she admits to him, once, that she’s had bad experiences with brainwashing.

 

He takes it remarkably well.

 

Eijirou is glad that she’s not sulking anymore. Toph is equally as glad. She still doesn’t appreciate ‘Eraserhead’ though, and accidentally lets slip about the encounter to Hitoshi, and he laughs her eight ways to Sunday before telling her Eraserhead’s his favorite hero.

 

She tells him _it figures_ and he laughs again and she thinks that maybe, she can handle this. Brainwashing and Quirk erasing and everything.

 

XxXxXxXxXOoOoOoOoO

 

Toph realizes fairly quickly that Hitoshi has not had a normal childhood. He doesn’t quite understand social expectations or why people hate stealing so much and Toph doesn’t really have an answer for most of his questions. Hell, _she’d_ stolen things before, though it sounded like Hitoshi’s family had started him on it when he was still in fourth grade. Hitoshi smokes sometimes too, (the smell is awful) and his default answer is to blame his mother, but he _is_ trying to stop, he admits at one point. It’s just... not working very well.

 

Stealing and smoking are only two of the multitude of things his family has ingrained in him, alongside casual deception, which wouldn’t be such a big deal if he didn’t use it when it wasn’t needed, but it was so habitual that he just used it _all the damn time_ with inconsequential things, lying for literally _no reason at all_.

 

Toph is torn. On the one hand, Hitoshi says he appreciates her blunt honesty and that’s why he tolerates her, because if she didn’t want him around she’d say so, and she kind of likes that explanation. On the other, he lies a lot. And then there’s the fact that Hitoshi had stolen a cat for her when she turned twelve.

 

She was torn because it was a very cuddly cat - Hitoshi claimed that it resembled a squashed, hair-covered marshmallow, and so he named it Marshmallow - but she didn’t know where he’d gotten it. “Did steal someone’s cat for me?” She’d asked, bewildered and oddly touched.

 

Hitoshi snorts. “Don’t be stupid, that would be mean. I _obtained_ ,” He stressed, “that cat from a pet store.”

 

Toph teased him about it until he threatened to take Marshmallow home and up his amount of cats to four, and that was that.

 

(Except that he stole her one of those blind walking stick things as a gag gift and wouldn’t stop laughing even when she beat him with it.)

 

Eijirou and Hitoshi got along fine, mostly, and her mom laughed harder than Hitoshi did when Toph presented her the walking stick.

 

 _This isn’t so bad_ , she thinks, and whacks Hitoshi in the ribs with her new toy when he tries to tease her again. He wheezes a laugh and Toph grins. Yeah, she could get used to this.


End file.
